Causeyside Street in Paisley has been shortlisted for a national Great Street award competing against the likes of Cromer Street in London and Grafton Street in Dublin.

The awards, run by The Academy of Urbanism, aim to recognise the best, most enduring or most improved urban environments.

Causeyside Street has been transformed in recent years as part of the Townscape Heritage Initiative/Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (THI/CARS) which was funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Environment Scotland and Renfrewshire Council.

As part of the scheme, improvements were made to the streetscape, a number of buildings were repaired and traditional shopfronts restored. The public realm improvements were delivered with the support of contractors Land Engineering and the consultant Ironside Farrar.

A spokesperson for Renfrewshire Council said: “The £3.5m THI/CARS project has transformed the face of Causeyside Street over the years and it is great to see it shortlisted alongside other locations across the UK at The Academy of Urbanism Awards.

“The businesses in Causeyside Street have benefitted from the improved environment with one shopkeeper commenting that the project had ‘given the street another 100 years’.

“This recognition helps shine a light on Paisley and makes the most of our town’s fantastic built heritage as we head ever closer to the submission of our bid for UK City of Culture 2021.

“We would like to thank our funding partners at the Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Environment Scotland as well as our contractors Land Engineering and Ironside Farrar for their role in helping to transform the street and we look forward to the next stage of the awards later this month.”

Representatives from the Academy of Urbanism assessed and celebrated 150 outstanding examples of good urbanism across the UK, Ireland to compile the shortlist for each award category.

Each category is to be whittled down to the top three later this month. The overall winners will then be announced at our Urbanism Awards Ceremony in November 2017.